This invention pertains to improved mechanism to convert rotary motion to transverse motion. The mechanism of this invention has particular utility as a component of a bellows forming machine generally of the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,429,160, and particularly of the type disclosed in copending application Ser. No. 474,726 concurrently filed and commonly assigned herewith.
In bellows making as commonly practiced in the art, and as described in the aforementioned copending application, the elongated tubular wall of the flexible metal blank to be formed into a bellows having circumferential convolutions (cf. helical convolutions) is deformed, to produce each individual circumferential convolution, between an interior forming roll and conforming exterior forming rolls as the blank is rotated about its axis. The mechanism of this invention can be used advantageously to force the interior forming roll radially outwardly to deform the wall of the blank with minimum deflection of the force transmitting components.